O'Brien pledges to unite Warren's disparate interests

Two experienced and qualified candidates are running for mayor of Warren Nov. 4.
The winner will replace Hank Angelo, who has been mayor for eight years and is not seeking re-election.
Joe Williams, 64, had served on council for 22 years, as a 7th Ward representative and as president of council, before running unsuccessfully against Angelo four years ago. Michael J. O'Brien, 48, was a 4th Ward councilman and councilman at large before becoming a Trumbull County commissioner in 1993, an office he still holds.
The Vindicator endorses O'Brien, who makes a convincing argument that based on his training and his experience as both a legislator and an administrator, he will be able to forge a working alliance between the mayor's office and city council that will result in a better-run city.
Achieving that goal will not be easy. The city continues to face economic challenges, and those challenges will be greater in coming years with the loss of more well-paying jobs as Delphi Packard Electric Systems continues to shift jobs from the Dana Street complex in the city to sites outside the city.
Working together
O'Brien says he will not only work with city council, but with the Trumbull 100 and with the business community to attract jobs to the city. He is a proponent of joint economic development districts with neighboring communities.
Whoever wins will face a challenge in dealing with the police department. Chief John Mandopoulos has wrapped himself up in the cloak of Civil Service protection and thumbed his nose at the mayor and safety director for too long and for too many times. Neither candidate was willing to say he would attempt to remove Mandopoulos based on his public record of arrogance in recent years.
O'Brien pointed out that Mandopoulos has functioned for some time as though he were invisible but that he now knows he's under a microscope.
He said he has worked with Mandopoulos in the past and anticipates being able to do so in the future. We certainly hope so. From the chief's mugging for a private citizen's video camera at a Youngstown Road nightclub, to his extreme reluctance to discipline officers and patrolmen in his department when they have clearly misbehaved, the only message he has sent his present overseers is that he believes he is above them and above the law.
The third candidate for mayor, Randy Law, a Republican, did not seek an endorsement.